Hayden Peake, the curator of the CIA’s “historical intelligence collection”, said parts of the book are “unintelligible” and evidence to support some of his claims was missing.

Peake concluded:

“This is not an easy book to read and understand. It is awkwardly organized and its analysis is steadfastly mediocre. There is doubt that the conclusions are supported by the evidence and no way to check.

“Despite the inclusion of a glossary, some HVA terms are not defined correctly; e.g. , IMs are called Informelle Mitarbeiter ; whereas Inoffizelle Mitarbeiter is correct–Mike Dennis gets it right. Furthermore, the story is not “told with comprehensive footnotes” as claimed.

“Many paragraphs have none where they are badly needed. That even Glees is unsure about his exegesis is suggested in the conclusions when he asks: “Were the Stasi’sBritish sources spies?”